| Puppet On A String

𝐕𝐀𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐀

I heard my father clear his throat as I approached him.

He turned and tried to muster a sweet smile, which I was sure was not humanly possible when it came to my dad.

"Everything okay, Dad?" I asked and he gave me a nod, took off his suit jacket and placed it by his briefcase before taking off his tie and loosening the top two buttons of his shirt.

I kept staring at the tattoo on the top of his hand, the symbol that represented our family-the wolf. The symbol consisted of chains weaved together to form a wolf's face, almost like a tribal sign. Both my brothers and all my uncles and cousins who have decided to devote their lives to the family business have the same symbol tattooed on their hands. My mom, like all the other women in our family, has it on the inside of her wrist. Everyone who had gone through the initiation ceremony received that symbol and wore it as a sign of their loyalty and commitment to the Bologna legacy.

I was the only Bologna who hadn't been inked with the family symbol yet-which brought us to the topic of the conversation I was on the verge of having with my father.

"Vanessa, Why have you been avoiding me?" He started to loosen the cuffs of his shirt.

"Me? I have not been avoiding you, dad. Not at all." Oh yes, I have been avoiding the heck out of you. "Why would you think that, dad?" I asked, plastering the sweetest smile I could mutter on my face even as I shifted uncomfortably from one leg to the other.

"Well, you haven't spent five minutes alone with me since you arrived," he announced and I gave a playful snort, trying to lighten the situation even though I knew the truth.

"Sorry, Dad," I muttered, then walked up to him and placed a kiss on his cheek. "It's not intentional. I knew how busy you were, and I didn't want to distract you. I know how important the family business is to you."

He placed a palm on my cheek and stared down at me lovingly. "My sweet Bambina, I am never too busy for my princess." He took my hand and turned my wrist up while he glanced down at the skin where our family symbol was supposed to be. "Please tell me you considered my proposal?"

Shit! So this was what he wanted to talk to me about? And funny enough, this right here, was one of the reasons I'd been avoiding him ever since I got here. His proposal.

"Dad, please." I stepped back, and it felt like the walls were starting to inch closer, the air slowly getting sucked out of the room.

"Bambina. I'm serious. I want you here, with us."

"I know, Dad." I had an overwhelming urge to roll my eyes, but I didn't. Instead, I pulled my hand through my hair and looked everywhere except at him.

He stepped forward, the determination in his eyes almost knocking me off my feet. "You do not have to become this big-shot lawyer, Bambina. You don't have to be so far away. This empire I've built, this is for you, for your brothers, and for our family to stay together-to stay strong and united."

"What am I supposed to do here, Dad? Am I supposed to sit around and look pretty until some man who carries your approval decides to make me his trophy wife?"

"Bambina-"

"No, Dad. I want a life of my own, to be me, and to not live by all these rules-your rules."

His thick, dark eyebrows slanted down as he scowled at me. "All these rules are there to protect us, Vanessa. They aren't just made up for my amusement."

"That's the thing. Why do I need protection? Because you run some questionable businesses? Because you choose to live this way?"

"Because this is our heritage. It is our responsibility to make sure the Bologna legacy remains as strong as it has been for the last fifty years." He raised his voice with every word he spoke, and his eyes darkened, making me wish I was able to walk out the front door five minutes earlier. Then all of this could have been avoided.

I took a deep breath and softly said, "This is exactly why I never want to come home."

He opened his mouth, but I was out the door before he had a chance to say anything else. Enough had been said already. It was clear he hated the decisions I'd made so far in my life, and he hated that I didn't want to do as I was told like every other damn Italian woman stuck in the same situation. I didn't ask to be a part of all this. I didn't ask to be a Bologna. And I sure as hell didn't ask to be bound by all their goddamn rules. Their rules were exactly that. Theirs. Not mine.

I stomped toward the Audi parked in the driveway, headlights shining directly at me, the person behind the wheel honking the horn. That could only be one asshole. Daniel.

"Hurry up, would you, princess? The cigars and booze are waiting."

I got into the back seat. "I'm pretty sure there's a rule somewhere that says we're not allowed to hang out in clubs."

"Luckily, I have Daddy's free pass tonight."

"Ah, aren't you just Daddy's little boy?"

By the way, Antonio peered at me from the front passenger seat, I saw he was suspicious of my behaviour. But fuck him. Fuck all of them. And fuck their rules. I was so sick and tired of always hearing I couldn't do this, and I couldn't do that, and this wasn't the way we did things in our family. What family? A family where we lived and died by our rules, but disregarded the rules of others by breaking the law?

Hypocrites, that was what they all were, a bunch of fucking rule-abiding hypocrites who had never earned a well-deserved dime in their lives.

The rest of the drive to the club was eerily quiet. My mood was starting to rub off on everyone near me. I was even willing to bet my brothers knew exactly what I was so pissed about. It wasn't that difficult to figure out, since everyone knew Dad had issues with me studying and trying to live my own life instead of being another puppet on a string.